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by Dahlia pinnata (HibiscusDaughter)



Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Gen, Penny and Agatha too, Snowbaz If You Squint, Sour cherry scones are mentioned at least once, Takes place during their second year, short and sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:34:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24696895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HibiscusDaughter/pseuds/Dahlia%20pinnata
Summary: Simon is anxious to return to Watford for his second year.
Relationships: Tyrannus Basilton "Baz" Pitch & Simon Snow
Kudos: 7





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**Author's Note:**

> I found this again recently and decided it was worth posting. It was meant to be part of a longer work that I doubt I'll ever finish so I'm just posting it as is. Hope you like it.

There’s an itch under Simon’s skin and for once it has nothing to do with magic.

He thought it would go away once he was finally able to return to Watford after what felt like a never-ending summer. He’d had many nightmares in which The Mage never came back for him because he’d decided Simon was too much trouble and the whole previous year was just a mistake. Or worse, it would turn out Simon was completely delusional and none of it actually existed at all. No magic, no Watford, no Penny, no Agatha, no Ebb and her goats, no Mage. No sour cherry scones or roast beef or Yorkshire pudding. No Wavering Wood or room at the top of Murmurs House tower. No Baz Pitch.

He‘d never go as far as to say he actually missed Baz during the summer, but even seeing his evil, annoyingly handsome roommate during those endless months would have felt like such a tremendous relief. Because Baz Pitch lived and breathed magic. And if he was real, Simon knew the World of Mages had to be real too.

But when he returns to Watford at last the itch doesn’t abide completely. At least not right away. Although the sour cherry scones he has at teatime help quite a lot. So does Penny’s excited chatter about what they’ll be covering in the upcoming term and Agatha’s sweet, polite smiles.

But something still feels off until Simon finally climbs the familiar staircase up to his room. He pricks his thumb on the Sword of Mages to draw blood since Penny warned him he’d need to do something to reintroduce himself to the room (and he's already forgotten the incantation she told him to use). His room. The place that feels more like his home than anywhere else in the world.

Which is kind of sad maybe because Baz is still his roommate and he’s already there, sneering at Simon just the way Simon remembers.

“Have a good summer, Snow?” he asks, sarcastically. “I see the Humdrum failed to finish you off and spare us another year of your idiocy.”

“Bugger off, Baz,” he snaps. “I just got home.”

He realizes what he’s said and for a moment freezes, feeling vulnerable. He prepares himself for Baz to take advantage, to tease him ruthlessly for being so sentimental, but Baz just rolls his eyes. “Then stop blocking the doorway. I was just on my way out.”

Simon’s eyes narrow suspiciously. “Where are you going?”

“Who are you, my father? Mind your own business, Snow,” Baz says, and brushes past him.

Simon lets him go. Not because he decides to let Baz off the hook (because Baz is definitely already up to something that he’ll need to get to the bottom of soon) but because tonight Simon wants nothing more than to be here, in this room.

There's a new, neatly folded set of uniforms laid out on his bed. He sets them aside—he'll try them on later to be sure but they look like they'll fit perfectly.

He opens the window and then flops down on his bed. It’s exactly the same as he remembers. Old and stuffed with feathers and preserved with magic. About as comfortable as you’d expect for a dorm room bed but far and away not the worst thing he’s ever slept on. He sighs deeply, breathing in the smell of the clean sheets and the faint tinge of cedar and bergamot that Baz left behind, and then rolls onto his back to smile up at the ceiling.

I’m home, he thinks. And the itch under his skin finally soothes.

He cries until Baz gets back and berates him for stealing his chance to bully Simon to tears.


End file.
